If you have Instant Book turned on and you cancel a guest who actually booked the listing through a request rather than Instant Book do you receive cancellation penalties? This hasn’t actually come up for me (I’ve never had to cancel anyone, knock on wood), I was just wondering what the rules were.
yes, 2020202020202020
No, not in my experience. I was “uncomfortable” with the guest. They changed something pertinent after I had already accepted their request. CS didn’t have any issue cancelling it based on the change in information.
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A cancellation is treated the same way no matter how a guest books. But since a guest can’t book on a request until you accept the booking, there should be little reason to have to cancel the request. If the request is inappropriate (too many people, want to bring pets, you sense they are being less than honest about something) and you let the guest know why it’s not a good fit and they should withdraw the request before they get charged, you should be able to avoid ever having to cancel. If the guest doesn’t withdraw the request within the 24 hour window, you can just decline.
They expect that you’ve done the vetting before accepting the reservation. But they’d still let you cancel a booking if something disconcerting arises between the time they make the booking and arrival. (So much depends on the particular agent you get, though!)
Like if you make an exception to your no pets rule when accepting a reservation, Air would probably assess penalties if you later reconsidered.
Air seems willing to work with hosts when new information arises after booking. Certainly, if the guest is being inappropriate or says anything indicating they’ll break house rules, you can cancel without penalty. One host on this board was able to cancel a guest who earned some bad reviews between booking and when he was due to arrive.
So the gist seems to be it’s harder than using the “uncomfortable” with IB, but doable if there’s cause.
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